When Southwest bought out AirTran they were quite up front about their desire to get rid of the 717s in their newly acquired fleet. Thanks to a new agreement between Delta and their pilot union, it seems like there is a deal on the table which will allow them to do precisely that. Assuming the […]
internet
American Airlines announces updates to long-haul fleet
American Airlines announced that they are moving forward with a retrofit of their long-haul fleet, updating the cabin interiors to improve the premium cabin experience. Mostly. The upgrades will expand the deployment of the new business class product, previously announced for the 777-300s which the company will begin receiving later this year. It will also mean […]
United p.s. retrofit date targets sighted
Several months ago United Airlines announced that they would be changing the configuration of the 757-200 aircraft they have running in their "premium service" routes between New York City‘s JFK airport and both Los Angeles and San Francisco. The changes include removing the first class cabin and replacing the business class seats with the flat-bed models […]
Taking the Emirates A380 OnAir connectivity for a ride
There were many, many reasons I was excited about coming home from our New Years trip to Sri Lanka. One of them was the opportunity to fly on an Emirates Airbus A380 in first class. And a couple weeks ago, when Emirates indicated that they were activating the OnAir in-flight internet service on the A380s I […]
Trans-Pacific in-flight wifi coming to Qantas
Qantas announced today that they will be fitting their Airbus A380 aircraft with the OnAir SwiftBroadband connectivity suite, providing in-flight internet connectivity on trans-Pacific flights between Australia and the United States. The move brings WiFi connectivity to the fleet type but not GSM/GPRS mobile services so there will not be the option for in-flight voice […]
Emirates launches in-flight WiFi on A380s
Emirates has announced the activation of the OnAir in-flight internet service on their Airbus A380 fleet. The service, available today on 11 of 19 and installed from the factory on new deliveries starting in mid-2012, will allow for WiFi data service as well as GSM voice and data services for mobile phones. The price-point for […]
Fleet-wide wifi coming to United
There was plenty of news in this morning’s quarterly earnings call for United Airlines. As per usual, most of it was focused on the financial numbers but there were a few interesting bits that came out which are actually of interest to passengers rather than investors. Wedged between a screed about potential new taxes on […]
A step closer to more bandwidth in the skies
LiveTV, the in-flight connectivity subsidiary of JetBlue, took a major step forward in their efforts to provide satellite-based Internet connectivity today with the launch of ViaSat-1 from the International Launch Services facility in Kazakhstan. The launch gets the satellite into orbit over the United States and provides the necessary signal coverage and bandwidth capacity to […]
In-flight wifi still not so popular
Market research company In-Stat has published a new report on the up-take of in-flight internet users and the numbers are, well, interesting. The company is very bullish on the technology, suggesting that by 2015 it should cross the $1.5Bn annual revenue mark. The company also suggests that in-flight wifi is no longer "a competitive differentiator, […]
Another potential setback for LiveTV’s in-flight internet service
It seems that in-flight entertainment and connectivity provider LiveTV just cannot catch a break in getting their in-flight internet product to a deliverable state. First there was the Kiteline product, built on the back of the old Airfone bandwidth spectrum and only ever live on a single plane. That project fell apart when they were […]